Geraci "Robots and the Sacred" Questions

1. The first page or two suggests what parallel between human attitudes to God and to robots?

2. Anne Foerst argues that Genesis "authorizes" (963) the understanding that people are more than what?

3. Geraci suggests that critics of Foerst argue that while we understand what distinguishes humanity from God, we do not understand our difference from what?

4. Describe how Geraci sees a parallel between human fear of God and human fear of robots and androids (965).

5. What does it mean to say, "in science fiction the eschatological dangers of technology never stray far out of mind" (966)?

6. In the Terminator and Matrix films, machines threaten our survival but are also what (968)?

7. This writer coined the term "robot" and explores what theme (969, bottom)?

8. How does Shelley's Frankenstein and more recent technology strike similar fears (970)?

9. How was the most important movement in late twentieth-century sci-fi postmodern (971-2)?

10. How is Gibson's Neuromancer crucial to science-and-religion discussions (972)?

11. Phillip K. Dick uses androids to explore what question (974, top)?

12. Why does AI technology play a key role for "theologians, philosophers, scientists, and historians" (976)?

13. Why are all the faces on the background of this web page so similar? Why do we want our deities and robots to look like us?

 

 

Q & A: Click on the question to open a panel with the answer.

1. The term "numimous" refers to the experience of the d_______ in human life?

The term "numimous" refers the experience of the divine in human life.

2. The Holy's tremendum has three parts: a____, m____, and e____ (964).

The Holy's tremendum has three parts: awefulness, majesty, and energy.

3. Geraci writes that "Metropolis, Forbidden Planet, Terminator, and The Matrix show that human beings' relations with artificial intelligence parallel their relations with the h____".

Geraci writes that "Metropolis, Forbidden Planet, Terminator, and The Matrix show that human beings' relations with artificial intelligence parallel their relations with the holy".

4. That intelligent machines have parallels with the holy is evident for Geraci in s_________ f__________ and therefore c____________.

That intelligent machines have parallels with the holy is evident for Geraci in science fiction and therefore culture.

5. Thomas Wolfe, the American novelist, wrote that this book "is the greatest single piece of writing I have ever known". Where does it come from?

Ecclesiastes is in the Old Testament and was written perhaps 250 years before Jesus. God is distant and we cannot know his wishes for us. It no longer expects apocalyptic salvation.

6. The Revelation to John is what kind of book? Why should that be no surprise to us?

It is Christian apocalyptic. Christianity was deeply apocalyptic at its founding.

 

Plotinsky "How Science Fiction Found Religion" Questions

(use the web page's search capabilities to locate passages):

1. According to Plotinsky, who is "Neo" (Keanu Reeves) compared to in the film The Matrix?

2. How does the plot of the Matrix track the "basic Christian narrative"? Does this puzzle you?

3. What is the age old question that Superman Returns raises?

4. Challenge Look-Up: what is the relationship of the Apocrypha to apocalyptic? How are apocryphal stories of Jesus related to Harry Potter and the Sorcer's Stone (almost halfway through)?

5. What is the "best illustration of the sci-fi shift toward Christian themes" and was the most successful sci-fi in film history?

6. What are some of the common characteristics of mythological heroes?

7. The first Star Trek series reflected what formative American political experience in the 60s (not Vietnam)? Why are politics, culture, and religion so intertwined?

8. Does this surprise you: "Science fiction of the written kind has long taken advantage of the cultural power of the Christ story." Explain.

9. Why does the writer think that sci-fi will not abandon its "religious impulses" (end)? What do you make of this?